A walk in the snow-i-cane
It wasn’t really a snow-i-cane, just a storm. But Friday morning I decided I wanted to make soup, and decided to trudge to Broadway for ingredients:
First stop was my school; a tree lost a branch, crunch, into the garden.
Next a short walk, and the steps – West 229th Street.
For those of you not familiar, way uptown and the west Bronx are hilly. They are laid out across a series of parallel north-south ridges. The closer you get to the Palisades (a parallel ridge), the higher and steeper the hills get. And the jaunt to Broadway goes down, phhoop, one of those ridges. Choices: Kingsbridge (steep) or Sedgwick (steep) or W229 (not a street, just a staircase).
There are many staircases up and down these ridges, but W229 is the most memorable. Not San Francisco, but as close as we get. (W238, heading west of Broadway, is steeper, but shorter). Starting at Sedgwick, W229 drops maybe 60 feet in 8 or so flights down to Kingsbridge Terrace, and after crossing the street, 60 feet more to Heath. Even in the snow, the steps looked well-trodden:
After navigating the steps, it was an easy stroll across the Deegan to Broadway. Here’s a guy cleaning an awning, and my destination (letters with a lovely snow-shadow effect):
Once I’d shopped, my hands were full, so almost no pictures on the trudge back up the hill (different route, no steps). I did stop to snap the last building on the Concourse, and the Mosholu Parkway service road:
JD2718 
I’m still not really clear on where you live exactly but the fact that you have to cross the Deegan to get to Bway tells me a lot. I can’t believe you walked all the way there in this snow. Good on ya.
Back in the day, I climbed the stairs from Bailey to the back entrance to then JHS 143 every day for 3 years. Not so bad when you’re with friends, but bad enough. I’ve climbed all those stairs many times, and often still do.
I had friends that lived in the apartment building in you last photo on the left. It had some amazing apartments. I understand that Carl Reiner and the Marshalls (Gary and Penny) lived there at one time.
So nice that you stopped by your school and I hope no students were (mistakenly!) there. If any were, I am sure they appreciated seeing you.
I call that the “Fairy Tale” house because it looks like the cover of the Grimm’s fairy tales book I had as a kid. One of my students used to live in there, and I told her, and she thought it was great, and she told her parents, who thought it was very funny.
It certainly is distinctive.
I knew that Gary Marshall went to Clinton. I did not know that he lived across the street…
And a commute upstairs? Not many people can claim to have had that!
I’ve climbed plenty of the stairs in SF, and these are quite impressive to me! (Besides, ours don’t have snow!)
I think yours are generally steeper.
Climbing stairs in the snow is not fun. I walk the steps by some nearby garden apartments when it snows sometimes. This time, I stuck to the streets, which was not an easy feat either.
Do you realize your school’s name shows in the picture?
Nice pics.
Yeah, it’s ok, thanks. And I’m glad you liked the photos.
I could not imagine walking back up those steps. I was careful halfway going down, and then I was fast, but with the idea that I would fall, if I fell, into snow. But I didn’t fall. But that last shot, just looking back, no way was I walking back up. And with groceries?
I made soup (chili actually) on Day 1. Still eating it, too. I really enjoyed your geographical descriptions. It makes NYC less scary to somebody like me. How many days did you end up getting off? We had 3 for some reason. And six more inches coming tomorrow. A storm Tuesday. I wish winter had done this earlier instead of when my spring fever begins.
We were off Friday. And 16 days earlier, we were off on a Wednesday. I don’t remember in 13 years teaching here getting more than one day off in a year.
The soup was ok. The broth at the beginning was very tasty, but the veggie/porridgy mush at the end was less flavorful than usual. Oh well, still hot, hearty, and certainly edible. I think I was too stingy with the salt.
And the Bronx has some cool geography. I think those little ridges were formed around the same time by similar processes as the Mettacommet (spelling?), which I’m sure you have some familiarity with (Avon Mountain, Hanging Hills of Meriden, West Rock in New Haven)